Vehicular information providing apparatus

Abstract

A vehicular information providing apparatus stores a travel history of a vehicle; sets a home area of a user of the vehicle; analyses usage patterns of the vehicle based on the travel history and, based on the analysis, assigns a predetermined use scene of the vehicle to a usage state of the vehicle including a time factor including a time zone and a day of the week, a departure place, a destination and a travel route; and provides information to the user of the vehicle and changes the information to be provided according to whether the vehicle is present in the home area and the predetermined use scene assigned.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A vehicular information providing apparatus comprising:
 a travel history storage part that stores a travel history of a vehicle;   a home area setting part that sets a home area of a user of the vehicle;   a usage pattern analysis part that analyses usage patterns of the vehicle based on the travel history stored in the travel history storage part and, based on the analysis, assigns a predetermined use scene of the vehicle to a usage state of the vehicle including a time factor including a time zone and a day of the week, a departure place, a destination and a travel route; and   an information providing part that provides information to the user of the vehicle and changes the information to be provided according to whether the vehicle is present in the home area and the predetermined use scene assigned by the usage pattern analysis part.   
     
     
         2 . The vehicular information providing apparatus as claimed in  claim 1 , further comprising:
 a destination extraction part that extracts a destination where the vehicle traveled to in the past based on the travel history stored in the travel history storage part, wherein   the home area setting part sets the home area based on a home position of the user of the vehicle, the destination extracted by the destination extraction part and the travel route through which the vehicle traveled to the destination.   
     
     
         3 . The vehicular information providing apparatus as claimed in  claim 2 , further comprising:
 a home position extraction part that extracts the home position based on the travel history stored in the travel history storage part, the home position extraction part extracting the home position from among the destinations extracted by the destination extraction part based on a parking time of the vehicle at each of the destinations extracted by the destination extraction part and the number of times of arrival at each of the destinations extracted by the destination extraction part.   
     
     
         4 . The vehicular information providing apparatus as claimed in  claim 1 , wherein
 the information providing part does not include advertising information in the information to be provided, when the vehicle is present in the home area and the usage pattern analysis part assigns the use scene corresponding to the user's use of the vehicle on the way to a workplace or a school as the predetermined use scene.   
     
     
         5 . The vehicular information providing apparatus as claimed in  claim 2 , wherein
 the information providing part does not include advertising information in the information to be provided, when the vehicle is present in the home area and the usage pattern analysis part assigns the use scene corresponding to the user's use of the vehicle on the way to a workplace or a school as the predetermined use scene.   
     
     
         6 . The vehicular information providing apparatus as claimed in  claim 3 , wherein
 the information providing part does not include advertising information in the information to be provided, when the vehicle is present in the home area and the usage pattern analysis part assigns the use scene corresponding to the user's use of the vehicle on the way to a workplace or a school as the predetermined use scene.   
     
     
         7 . The vehicular information providing apparatus as claimed in  claim 1 , wherein
 the information providing part raises the priority of good-deal information in the information to be provided, when the vehicle is present in the home area and the usage pattern analysis part assigns a use scene corresponding to the user's use of the vehicle in the user's free time as the predetermined use scene.   
     
     
         8 . The vehicular information providing apparatus as claimed in  claim 2 , wherein
 the information providing part raises the priority of good-deal information in the information to be provided, when the vehicle is present in the home area and the usage pattern analysis part assigns a use scene corresponding to the user's use of the vehicle in the user's free time as the predetermined use scene.   
     
     
         9 . The vehicular information providing apparatus as claimed in  claim 3 , wherein
 the information providing part raises the priority of good-deal information in the information to be provided, when the vehicle is present in the home area and the usage pattern analysis part assigns a use scene corresponding to the user's use of the vehicle in the user's free time as the predetermined use scene.   
     
     
         10 . The vehicular information providing apparatus as claimed in  claim 4 , wherein
 the information providing part raises the priority of good-deal information in the information to be provided, when the vehicle is present in the home area and the usage pattern analysis part assigns a use scene corresponding to the user's use of the vehicle in the user's free time as the predetermined use scene.   
     
     
         11 . The vehicular information providing apparatus as claimed in  claim 5 , wherein
 the information providing part raises the priority of good-deal information in the information to be provided, when the vehicle is present in the home area and the usage pattern analysis part assigns a use scene corresponding to the user's use of the vehicle in the user's free time as the predetermined use scene.   
     
     
         12 . The vehicular information providing apparatus as claimed in  claim 6 , wherein
 the information providing part raises the priority of good-deal information in the information to be provided, when the vehicle is present in the home area and the usage pattern analysis part assigns a use scene corresponding to the user's use of the vehicle in the user's free time as the predetermined use scene.   
     
     
         13 . The vehicular information providing apparatus as claimed in  claim 1 , wherein
 the information providing part raises the priority of sightseeing information in the information to be provided when the vehicle is present outside the home area.   
     
     
         14 . The vehicular information providing apparatus as claimed in  claim 2 , wherein
 the information providing part raises the priority of sightseeing information in the information to be provided when the vehicle is present outside the home area.   
     
     
         15 . The vehicular information providing apparatus as claimed in  claim 3 , wherein
 the information providing part raises the priority of sightseeing information in the information to be provided when the vehicle is present outside the home area.   
     
     
         16 . The vehicular information providing apparatus as claimed in  claim 4 , wherein
 the information providing part raises the priority of sightseeing information in the information to be provided when the vehicle is present outside the home area.   
     
     
         17 . The vehicular information providing apparatus as claimed in  claim 5 , wherein
 the information providing part raises the priority of sightseeing information in the information to be provided when the vehicle is present outside the home area.   
     
     
         18 . The vehicular information providing apparatus as claimed in  claim 6 , wherein
 the information providing part raises the priority of sightseeing information in the information to be provided when the vehicle is present outside the home area.   
     
     
         19 . The vehicular information providing apparatus as claimed in  claim 7 , wherein
 the information providing part raises the priority of sightseeing information in the information to be provided when the vehicle is present outside the home area.   
     
     
         20 . The vehicular information providing apparatus as claimed in  claim 8 , wherein
 the information providing part raises the priority of sightseeing information in the information to be provided when the vehicle is present outside the home area.